Miles From Where You Are
by narglesandbowties
Summary: Rose must've had trouble finding the Doctor when she used the Dimension Cannon. Here's my take on her failed attempts to find him before "Turn Left". Each is based on a stanza from Snow Patrol's "Set the Fire to the Third Bar". Oneshot.


_I find the map and draw a straight line_

_Over rivers, farms, and state lines. _

_The distance from 'A' to where you'd be_

_It's only finger-lengths that I see._

He had just been here, she could feel it. The desert sun bore down on her back, making her sweat in her blue jacket. Yet Rose Tyler did nothing to shed her layers, and instead took a moment to sit down by the beautiful lake. Time-jumping made her dizzy. It was nothing like riding in the TARDIS. She idly mused, relishing a break with her fingers lazily drawing figures in the ground. Rose looked at the mixture of dirt and sand around her and was shocked to see the prints and indentures from what had to have been multiple people.

As she stood up to further examine her surroundings, Rose realized she could smell smoke. Perhaps it was from the car whose tire marks she had seen? About to shake it off, she glanced at the lake again…and saw a small object, still smoking, in the middle of the lake.

Her curiosity, which normally would've prompted her to find out what it was, instantly left her. Suddenly feeling nauseous, Rose took a running start and jumped.

_I touch the place_

_Where I'd find your face._

_My fingers in creases_

_Of distant dark places._

The next time, Rose thought she had finally gotten it right. There he was, her doctor, strolling through the streets of London as if he had no care in the world. Rose checked her watch, provided by Torchwood. 2010, it read. No possibility of running into herself. She picked up the pace to a conspicuous fast walk, about to call out his name…when she heard her own voice, as if an echo to the sound Rose had not yet let out. A blonde girl was running towards the Doctor, chips in hand. He swirled about, took the chips from her, and kissed her soundly on the mouth. _Oh,_thought Rose, shocked and slightly jealous of this version of her._But I wasn't here in 2010. This is a different universe…in which we were never separated._

Filled with despair at this missed chance, Rose jumped. Yet the grin formerly on her face re-appeared, for she knew that no matter what happened to her, one Rose Tyler was living out her dreams.

_I hang my coat up in the first bar._

_There's no peace that I've found so far._

_The laughter penetrates my silence_

_As drunken men find flaws in science._

After a day of wrong turns and missed opportunities, Rose felt that a drink was necessary, not optional. Though still only a social drinker, she found that alcohol helped a great deal to keep the sting away from all the rejections.

Too tired to think, she let her ears wander over the conversations around her, until they settled upon a group of men heatedly arguing about time travel. She began to chuckle, knowing that they had no idea what they were talking about, until a voice interrupted with a rapid-paced dissertation on the nature of "timey-wimey" things.

Rose spun around instantly, ready to face her Doctor, but instead made eye contact with a younger man with gangly limbs and much longer hair. Except…those eyes did not belong to a younger man. With a face full of longing, the Doctor reached for her, but at the same time managed to blurt out "Go! Quickly!"

As he watched her golden head disappear out of the pub's door, he quietly finished his statement. "I wouldn't let you leave me this time".

_Their words, mostly noises._

_Ghosts with just voices._

_Your words in my memory_

_Are like music to me._

The owner of the video store, Sally, told Rose that she had seen the Doctor just one day ago, when he ran away with a crossbow to fight aliens with a dark skinned woman. Upon noting the defeated look on Rose's face, Sally Sparrow gave her a movie for free. Deflecting Rose's weak replies, she answered "No, really. Take it. It's my favorite. And look out for Easter Eggs".

Alone in a hotel room, Rose Tyler watched the precious face of her Doctor until the early hours of the morning as he supplied answers to questions that Rose could not hear. It was enough, however, just to hear his voice again.

_After I have traveled so far,_

_We'd set the fire to the third bar._

_We'd share each other like an island,_

_Until exhausted, close our eyelids._

He had spotted her before she could run away. This new, yet older Doctor asked no questions, for it had already played out in his life. He refused to tell, however, his age or whether they would ever reunite. Instead, he told her that he was to die soon. That unfamiliar face and body with eyes she had known for years lowered his voice, and asked her to stay with him. "Please", he rasped, the word nearly sticking in this throat.

His bedroom was the same. This was the last coherent thought she had before the Doctor's lips met hers, before Rose was thrust into an oblivion that she thought she would never be allowed to experience. It was so wrong, so so wrong, but the Doctor's insistent hands brushed all inhibitions from her mind until it was just Rose and the Doctor, in the Tardis, moving as one. The pair had tears in their eyes as they whispered their regrets, their feelings, how much they had missed each other, until their passion consumed yet expressed all their emotions. It built and built until Rose arched back and saw the whole of time and space before collapsing into the arms that held her.

When she left the TARDIS the next morning without looking back, Rose felt as if his actions alone had revealed to her how their story would end.

_And dreaming, pick up from_

_The last place we left off_

_Your soft skin is weeping_

_A joy you can't keep in._

Rose thought she finally got it right. The Doctor had turned around, seen her, and whirled her about. No other companion, no regeneration, not even an alternate version of herself, was anywhere to be found. Rose had no chance to explain before her mouth was swept up in passionate kisses. The Doctor's hands swept over her body, as if memorizing it. His mouth only stopped to murmur "but you died". Finally, he stepped back to look at her.

Blushing under his gaze yet beaming radiantly, Rose finally responded to his statement. "Yeah, but not really, silly! Just trapped after Torchwood, trying to get back to you. There's something I need to tell-" she was cut off by the Doctor's look of horror.

"No, Rose" he said bracingly. "You died at Torchwood. It was the Dalek's idea of torture, making me watch as you turned into a Cyberman and then forcing me to destroy you".

Rose, unable to speak, stepped back from him. "I'm so sorry Doctor," she stammered. "I have to find a parallel version of you".

"NO!" screamed the Doctor, as he caught her arm. His eyes were wild with grief. "Please, please just stay with me. What if you don't find me? You can be happy with me, here! We can see the stars, I can have you back…"

"I'm so sorry" she whispered through tears. She ripped her arm away from him and jumped.

_I'm miles from where you are._

_I lay down on the cold ground._

_And I, I pray that something picks me up_

_And sets me down in your warm arms._

"Get up", said a voice from behind her. "I quit…I'm done", she replied.

"No, Rose, you aren't", Mickey replied, roughly hoisting her up from the fetal position. She was in Torchwood, the same place where he had left her the first time. She was tired of running, tired of having her heart broken over and over.

"Look," said Mickey. "I'm not gonna baby you, cause I know ya, and that's not how you work. I know this must be hard, but think about who you're doing this for".

"I KNOW THAT, Mickey. I see him every time. And it's all wrong." Her body hurt from curling up on the floor.

"But what you're doing isn't. You're saving two worlds at once. You're Rose Tyler, and you surely must know by now that the universe isn't enough to separate you from the ones that you love. And you love him, don't ya?" Mickey says, with a sad, knowing smile. He continues, not waiting for an answer that he already knows. "You've gotta be strong, for me, for him, for your parents and Tony, for our universes. I know you can do this, Rose."

He lifts her up and envelops her in a warm, strong hug. She whispers her thanks and steels herself for one last jump.

She lands in Donna's universe.


End file.
